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Need pics! :)

Hawthorn leather (a la Ray Mears)? Haws do that magic self setting gel thing when pulped & sieved to remove the stones and you can add a modicum of more flavoursome things such as shredded dried apple or citrus - or even pieces of gently stewed rosehip or chunks of dried damson. Whatever fruits ...

Happy foraging!

Don't try using the leaves of the cherry laurel, it's only the fruit that can be eaten (and only then in moderation - as already pointed out, the plant contains hydrogen cyanide and this is at its most concentrated in the fruit stones and the foliage). I do know of the fruits being used to flavour b...

Yup, they all look right from the photographs.

Mmm..... Tart & orangy with a distinctive tang. I love them, but harvesting them can be really painful - and they tend to explode when they're ripe too!

First one is chicken of the woods. The one with the purplish cap is likely to be a russula. Of the others, the bracket might have been a very old dyrad's saddle but it's so way past it that it's hard to be sure. (I think your camera does what mine does and sometimes looks straight past the object yo...

Certainly looks good - the tree is a Beech, yes?

What about sloe wine? There seem to be plenty of recipes available for it on the web. You certainly can add them to hedgerow jam mixes or even use them on their own but beware because the result can set insanely solidly (so much so I couldn't get a knife into mine to remove it from the jar). Or mayb...

I love the wine idea, it very pragmatically ticks all the right boxes. You can strain it to your utmost satisfaction and frankly no jelly is going to make you 'happy' in quite the way a drop of wine can.

Go for it and good luck!

No phobia is stupid, I have a friend who's absolutely terrified of clowns.

One step at a time as they say. Would you eat blackberry jam if you bought it?

I need to get out and gather some too actually. Thanks for the reminder!

True, although I seem to remember someone telling me that the frost thing does something for the sugars in the fruit although that may have been in reference to rowan vodka.

I must admit I wouldn't be thinking about doing it yet myself but I guess what you could do is simulate a frost by freezing your harvest before you make your jelly. Have you tried the squeeze test? If they're like bullets I'd give it a bit, but if they're fleshy and juicy and give when pinched it mi...

Yeah, stoning is a chore but it's one of those things that I do on quiet evening with the radio on or if there's something that's not too demanding on the telly. Plus, I have a fairly decent pitter that I found in a charity shop that helps a lot. The stones are scattered back into the hedges of they...